I was sent a free copy of the recent James Martin book 'The Meaning of the 21st Century' and I have promised to give honest and strait critique of the work. I have just finished Part One and to be frank I am shocked and appalled by the behavior of the human race. Martin's words are scathing and brutally honest as he recounts the vast and various technological, social, and scientific blunders of the last century. He lays on example after example of how we have brutalized our planet in a rapid plunder of resources all in search of personal wealth. He is especially unkind to those who have taken the hubris moral high ground of manifest destiny - that humans are intelligently designed to rule the planet. Yea ... rule not obliterate.
As a work it is very depressing and maybe it needs to be in order to get people's attention. Martin sets out some slight hope provided we are able to get our heads out of the accounting books an into the real world. We have become so blind by consumption that we are missing the secondary and tertiary effects of our actions. He pays particular attention to the environmental impacts and social consequences of overpopulation, industrialization, and genetic recombination. Part one paints a very bleak picture with small window of opportunity - a window I seriously doubt we as a species will be motivated enough to jump through.
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